Thursday, 20 December 2012

Boeing delivers first P-8I maritime aircraft to navy

The first three P-8Is at Boeing's Seattle facility this morning, where the first aircraft was handed over to the Indian Navy

By Ajai Shukla

Business Standard, 21st Dec 12

The Indian Navy got a significant boost
today with the receipt of its first P-8I multi-mission maritime aircraft (MMA).
In a small ceremony at the Seattle facility of Boeing Defense, Space and
Security (BDS), a ribbon was cut and an Indian Navy officer was ceremonially
handed over the keys to the aircraft.

The Indian Navy’s US $2.1 billion purchase
of eight P-8I aircraft makes it the first military outside the US to operate
this aircraft. With cutting edge sensors and weaponry mounted on a modified
Boeing 737-800 aircraft, the P-8I will maintain “maritime domain awareness”
over the Indian Ocean. For the navy, this means knowing exactly what is
happening on its oceanic turf.

Based on INS Rajali, a naval base at
Arakonam, near Chennai, the P-8I will fly 8-hour missions to seek out pirates,
suspicious cargo vessels, or hostile warships and submarines. Its enhanced
internal fuel tanks allow it to fly 1,100 kilometers to a patrol area, remain
“on station” for six hours, and then fly back 1,100 kilometres to Arakonam.
Using aerial refuelling, this range could be doubled.

The P-8I’s key strength lies in its
sophisticated sensors. A multi-mode radar picks up aircraft, surface ships and submarines.
Another belly-mounted radar looks backwards, like an electronic
rear-view-mirror. Any suspected threat could be investigated further: sonobuoys
are dropped to zero in on suspected enemy submarines, radioing back any
suspicious sounds that they pick up. A submarine would be picked up also by a
magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) on the P-8I’s tail.

There is plenty of heavy weaponry to deal
with such threats. This includes anti-ship Harpoon missiles, and the Mark 82
depth charge that is standard equipment with the US Navy. To destroy enemy
submarines, five Mark 54 torpedoes lie warm in a special compartment in the
aircraft’s belly.

The P-8 aircraft being built for India are
designated the P8-I (I for India), distinguishing them from the US version, the
P8-A. The aircraft handed over today will remain in Seattle for the next 3-4
months, while Indian Navy crews carry out flight tests of all the systems and
sensors. It is expected to fly to India by about May 2013.

Two more P-8I aircraft that are nearing
completion will also be handed over in 2013, say Boeing spokespersons. The
entire order of 8 aircraft will be delivered by 2015.

The navy plays an increasingly visible role
in maintaining vigil over India’s 7,500 kilometre coastline and over the
maritime stretch from the Strait of Malacca in the east to the Strait of Hormuz
in the west. In August, then navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma revealed that, in
addition to eight P-8I aircraft, the navy would also augment its surveillance
and reconnaissance capability with eight Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance
(MRMR) aircraft, and a fleet of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.